Contents

It bore the traditional names Alkaid (or Elkeid from the Arabic القايد القائد) and Benetnash (Benetnasch). Alkaid derives from the Arabic phrase meaning "The leader of the daughters of the bier" (قائد بنات نعشqā'id bināt naʿsh). The daughters of the bier, i.e. the mourning maidens, are the three stars of the handle of the Big Dipper, Alkaid, Mizar, and Alioth; while the four stars of the bowl, Megrez, Phecda, Merak, and Dubhe, are the bier. In 2016, the International Astronomical Union organized a Working Group on Star Names (WGSN)[16] to catalog and standardize proper names for stars. The WGSN's first bulletin of July 2016[17] included a table of the first two batches of names approved by the WGSN; which included Alkaid for this star.

It is known as 北斗七 (the Seventh Star of the Northern Dipper) or 瑤光 (the Star of Twinkling Brilliance) in Chinese.

In the Nintendo DS game Devil Survivor 2, Benetnasch appears as the last of the Septentriones, a series of strange beings that invade Japan throughout the game. The other six are also named after stars in the Big Dipper (Dubhe, Merak, Phecda, Megrez, Alioth, Mizar).

In Chinese fortune-telling, north is believed to be a very unlucky direction. Northwest is even worse. Hunters and soldiers traditionally did not point guns and weapons in the direction of this star.[19]